“Being polite is not the same as flirting. Hey, the Phillies game is starting. Think they’ll beat the Mets tonight?”
Gage turned to one of the few flat-screen TVs above the fancy bar playing the ball game.
“God, I hope so. But Nola is pitching and he’s coming off that injury so who knows?”
Distraction successful!
“Hopefully it’s at least a good game! I hate the blowouts; they’re just so boring.”
“I could use a blowout. Realmuto is killing me in my fantasy league.”
“He’s the best catcher in the league, you can’t get any better out there.”
“I’d do better with Will Smith from the Dodgers.”
“He can certainly help you get jiggy wit it!”
Hailey gave him her biggest grin at her joke. How can you not make a joke when he’s got a name like that?
Gage deadpanned, “Good one.”
Geez, he was no fun.
“I thought so, too. But anyway, Realmuto has like twenty percentage points over Smith when it comes to batting average.”
Gage narrowed his eyes, “No way, maybe I’ll make a trade for Smith. I think Jamie has him on his team.”
“Trust me. Stick with Realmuto. Go ahead, comparehis stats.”
“I’ll show you, Smith is definitely better. He was hot the last week.”
Gage pulled out his phone and searched the baseball stats page. After a bit, she could see the expression on his face change from smug to annoyed. He locked his phone and put it back in his pocket.
“Well? Was I right?”
“Yeah, you were right. You should stick to waitressing instead of paying so much attention to baseball.”
Hailey narrowed her eyes. Gage and her have been to a handful of games during their relationship and usually had a good time. At least, she always had a good time at a live game. His time always depended on whether they won or lost.
“What do you mean I should stick to waitressing? Are you really pissed that I was right about a baseball stat? It’s just a game.”
He grunted. Gage always got like this when Hailey showed him up when it came to sports knowledge. She was used to guys getting like this, but you would think he’d be happy his girlfriend enjoyed something as much as he did and was knowledgeable about it. The emasculation was strong with this one.
“Ya know, I did use to be a sports reporter.”
“Yeah, yeah. Oh here’sEliwith our food.”
Thank God.
Hailey said thank you to the server after he dropped off the food, noticing Gage just ignored him. Rude. She really was tired of men feeling threatened by her sports knowledge. It was getting old. And God forbid she also played better than a guy. They looked like their balls just got cut off. Too bad actually cutting off their balls was frowned upon.
Sometimes she missed being a sports reporter, but being around so many men and losing her weekends and nights was just getting stale. It also didn’t help that her editor was a misogynist that constantly hit on her, trying to get her to go out for a drink with him. She had to get out of there.
Cheering from the bar brought Hailey out of her thoughts. Realmuto just hit a home run for the Phils. She clapped her hands with most of the bar but Gage just looked at the TV and rolled his eyes.
Seriously? Delicate fucking men.
“Oh, my mom wanted to know if you wanted to go over there for dinner sometime soon.”
